Why Do Multi-Billion Companies like Google Prefer to Open their R&D Centers in CEE?

When corporate technological behemoths were opening offices in Ukraine, they probably had an effective strategy in mind. But it’s highly likely that with the COVID-19 crisis they couldn’t guess that such a choice would be extremely beneficial.

For instance, Snap Inc, the creators of one of the top most popular apps by downloads in 2019, has had offices in two major cities of Ukraine in Kyiv and Odesa since 2018 and Samsung R&D Institute has been around for several years already.

From the recent news, two more renowned companies have entered the shores of Ukraine in 2020 — Reddit and Google. Reddit has already made its first two technological hires and Google opened its research and development center in February.

Other companies that have their R&D offices in Ukraine are Bolt (Taxify) and the Japanese giant Rakuten, which owns an instant-messaging app Viber.

There are multiple reasons why they prefer to open research and development centers in CEE, especially in Ukraine, despite the fact that it’s quite a risky venture. Having an outsourcing center abroad poses multiple challenges and risks, but more precisely fears of the unknown.

To dispel all your doubts about this matter, here are several reasons why the above-mentioned companies have R&D centers in Ukraine and why you should be next.

1. Cost-effectiveness

If you want to effectively reduce costs of development, you probably should consider the option of opening a research and development center in Ukraine. First of all, the country’s economy is still growing and hasn’t reached its full potential compared to the US or Western Europe. Hence, salaries in the country are quite low compared to the States, Germany, Canada, or the UK and you can make pretty lucrative hires.

Secondly, it should be mentioned that the quality of software development in Ukraine has always adhered to the highest standards. Many Ukrainians startups have long been enjoying the world’s fame — Depositphotos, Grammarly, PetCube, Preply, just to name a few. Thus, you can effectively save money to develop your software products of outstanding quality.

2. High Speed of Development

Outsourced R&D centers will always serve you as the launching pad for fast and timely software development. While many tech companies located in one place can suffer from crises, you will maintain the steady speed of development or even increase it.

Such outsourced offices can develop an MVP or a full-fledged product that can be brought to the market quickly to make your target audience quite happy and content.

3. Rich Pool of Tech Talent

Ukraine has a wide pool of technological talents. This is due to the strong technical background they get at universities and the experience they get by working in many outsourcing companies that create valuable software products. Moreover, businesses themselves pour tons of money into different educational programs designed for top software developers to make them competitive in the whole technical world.

It all makes the IT industry an appealing sphere for multiple professionals. And you are likely to find an engineer with a fitting background you need here than anywhere else.

4. Remote Work with no Crunch

Remote mode of work can be a real obstacle for many companies, but only if they didn’t establish secure and effective communication with employees. Otherwise, it’s one of the main reasons why corporations have outsourced R&D centers.

Opportunity to work remotely gives companies a perfect chance to increase their working hours from eight hours to sixteen hours per day and do it without placing tight constraints on employees. Thus, you can ensure longer hours with no crunch for your workers. Furthermore, you don’t have to relocate talents form the country. In addition, the right remote work strategy can completely eliminate the need of relocating programmers.

5. Convenient Geographical Location

Ukraine is the second-largest country in Europe and it has the most convenient location. It has direct flights to almost all major cities of Europe, the US, and Canada. It means that if you decide to open a research and development center in the country, it’ll be easy for you to reach your destination within several hours.

6. Easy Tax Procedures

If you’re considering having an R&D center in Ukraine, you’re probably concerned with Ukrainian policies and tax procedures. But there’s nothing to worry about. The taxes are low and you can easily hire a professional here to deal with all the legal issues you might encounter for a reasonable price.

We could also mention the convenient infrastructure for IT professionals. Many cities of Ukraine provide modern offices or even “ecosystems” within cities that have all the necessary equipment for convenient work.

In the long run, it looks even more profitable to have an R&D offshore if we take into account various crises. Take the coronavirus, for instance, that hit the world in December 2019 and is still raging around the globe.

To sum up, Google, Samsung, Rakuten, and others have made the crucial strategic decision regarding research and development centers in Ukraine as they can secure their businesses in many cases.

If you are interested in opening R&D in Ukraine and require more information on this topic, you can always contact us here and we’ll get in touch with you asap.